He Just Can`t Avoid The Law

Martin Schachter is apparently in love with the legal profession. He may be so in love that he continued to practice law even though his license was yanked.

The tale of Schachter, 46, would appear to be one of achievement. He emigrated here from Poland as a youth. After much hard work and study, he realized a dream to be a criminal defense lawyer. He married, had kids and lived in a fancy house in Highland Park.

But all was derailed in 1984 by Operation Greylord. He was charged with being a ``hustler``--an attorney who kicked back bribes to judges in return for getting cases referred to him.

Penitent and pragmatic, Schachter cut a deal with the U.S. attorney`s office. He pleaded guilty to a count of mail fraud in return for testifying against judges. District Judge John Grady placed Schachter on probation for five years and commended him for admitting his guilt.

Schachter requested permission from the Illinois Supreme Court to give up his license rather than face disbarment or suspension. On Nov. 30, 1984, the Supreme Court granted his request.

But after more than 17 years, it seems the practice of law wasn`t that easy to shed.

Five months after his license was lost, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission now charges, he was back in business--operating from a back room of a construction company office on Milwaukee Avenue and handling immigration cases.

According to the complaint, a North Side woman, Stella Cicmocki, went to a travel agency that employed a woman who translated Polish documents into English. Cicmocki mentioned that her brother, also a Polish immigrant, needed a Social Security card to keep his job.

She was referred to a man in a back office of Alco Construction Co., 3608 N. Milwaukee, according to the complaint. A sign on the window stated:

``Attorney at Law Adwokat.`` Adwokat is Polish for lawyer.

Cicmocki said Schachter agreed to help her brother obtain the card for a $700 fee. A few days later, she allegedly met Schachter again and turned over $200 in cash. Schachter wrote a receipt on the back of a business card that read: ``Martin Schachter Attorney at Law.``

Six weeks later, Cicmocki returned because nothing had been done. She demanded her money. Schachter refused, the complaint says. Cicmocki warned that she would call the police.

``He changed colors. He was very nervous,`` Cicmocki told the commission. ``He took all the papers that I gave to him. . . . He opened the door, grabbed me by the arm. He threw the papers on the sidewalk and he pushed me out.``

Schachter says the complaint is ``totally bogus.`` He`s disturbed because the commission didn`t get to his side of the story before filing the complaint. ``I was not practicing law,`` Schachter says. ``I told her I couldn`t handle it, but that I knew somebody who did. The $200 was a retainer for another attorney.`` He says he turned the $200 over to the other attorney. So, who`s the attorney?

``He`s a licensed attorney, and I really don`t know if I want to mention his name to you. The name will come out at the hearing. . . . I merely acted as an intermediary because she spoke Polish and very little English.``

Schachter took the retainer ``out of stupidity. I should have said to bring the papers and the retainer to the lawyer. I didn`t because he asked me to get a retainer.``

Schachter maintains he`s working on income tax matters and not as a lawyer. The sign outside, he says, is from his past life. He says he wrote the receipt on an old business card because it was in his wallet and handy.

HAROLD ROBBINS WOULD BE PROUD

A former University of Chicago English professor, John Cawelti, now at the University of Kentucky, specialized in contemporary culture and formula fiction, like that of Harold Robbins. His sense of popular curiosities might come in handy in a dispute related to his divorce from Elizabeth Cawelti.

John Cawelti`s attorney was initially John Hirsch, who helped draft a divorce decree calling for any debts to lawyers to be paid from proceeds of a planned sale of the couple`s Hyde Park apartment. Well, John Cawelti switched to attorney Kathleen Roseborough, a buyer could not be found and the decree was modified, leaving Elizabeth with the apartment in exchange for releasing John Cawelti from support payments. Hirsch, who is owed $3,954, is challenging the change, requesting Circuit Judge John Beatty to hold John and Elizabeth in contempt and even order sale of the apartment to pay his fee.

Sidley & Austin`s Edna Epstein represents Elizabeth, who is 59 and earning $16,000 as a secretary. Epstein uses language not usually associated with her gray firm in attributing the debt to the ``deadbeat former husband,`` who with his new wife is said to earn as much as $100,000. Epstein writes that Hirsch`s request is ``outrageous`` and ``demonstrates a lack of any proportion, restraint or shame.``